Locomotives

Heljan 'O' Gauge Class 03

Heljan have announced the release of the BR Class 03 in 'O' gauge, as built with the vacuum brakes. Several liveries will be available and there will eventually be two models reflecting the various detail changes made between 'early' and 'late' versions covering the earlier BR green liveries and the later BR blue liveries.

No release date has been given as yet but hopefully mid to late 2018. Exact details of the liveries that will be produced has also not been confirmed but below is a rough estimate of what will be announced and I will update the website as soon as we have exact details.

The above CAD images are basically to show the loco is progressing but obviously there are some amendments/corrections to be made
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It is now looking like there will be four versions of each livery, the conical chimney both numbered and un-numbered and then the flower pot chimney both numbered and un-numbered.

The British Rail Class 03 locomotive was one of British Rail's most successful diesel-mechanical. The class, numbering 230 examples, was built by Swindon and Doncaster works in 1957-1962 and numbered D2000-D2199 and D2370-D2399 (later 03004 to 03399). D2370 and D2371 were used as departmental locomotives and originally numbered 91 and 92 respectively.

Like other shunters of this size, the Class 03 was built for light duties where a larger locomotive was not needed, especially for shunting at locomotive and carriage depots and as station pilots, or where larger or heavier locomotives could not be used. The reduction over time in the demand for shunting locomotives meant that they were progressively withdrawn from 1968 onwards, many being sold to private industry. However, some remained in service much longer, with two examples on the Isle of Wight lasting until 1993 (mainland examples had gone by 1987). In 1998, one of the Isle of Wight locos, 03179, was reinstated by the West Anglia Great Northern Railway Company (WAGN) for service at Hornsey depot. It was named Clive after a depot employee, and was operated subsequently by First Capital Connect until withdrawal in 2008.